Regulation of drugs and medicines: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa surrenders, albeit temporarily, powers to Centre

The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has, for the time being, surrendered its responsibilities of matters pertaining to regulation of drugs and medicines, to the federal government. In this connection, the KP provincial assembly under Article 144 of the Constitution passed a unanimous resolution on Wednesday to surrender the powers acquired under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, once again to the federal government.
However, the treasury benches said that the arrangements were for the time being as the province lacked mechanism while the Supreme Court had also given a deadline of February 17, 2012 for completion of legislation in this regard. The session of the provincial assembly begun with Speaker Kiramatullah Khan in the chair.
The resolution was moved by Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Arshad Abdullah, which states that "in pursuance of Article 144 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Provincial Assembly of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hereby resolves that the Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament), may by law regulate the matters pertaining to Drugs and Medicine".
The speaker put the resolution for vote, which the house unanimously adopted. However, surprisingly, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, parliamentary leader of PPP-Sherpao, on a point of order, questioned the claims of the provincial government to achieve provincial autonomy under 18th Constitutional Amendment. He said that the government had made tall claims of abolition of current list and devolution of 18 ministries to the provinces. But, now they were retreating from it. He asked the government to apprise the house of factual situation.
Malik Mohammad Qasim of JUI-F, Javed Abbasi of PML-N and Nargis Samin also questioned surrendering of matters relating to regulation of drug and medicine to the federal government. Abbasi even went on to say that under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the ministry of tourism was also devolved and the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) was yet to be devolved to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Nargis Samin said that the province was lacking proper drug regulatory system and the pharmaceutical companies were facing difficulties in getting licenses and registration of drugs. She urged the provincial government for adopting a mechanism to regulate drugs and medicines at the provincial level.
Speaker, Kiramatullah Khan, questioned debate on the unanimous resolution, saying why the opposition remained silent at the time of the passage of the move. Sikandar Sherpao said that rules had been bypassed during the time of verbal vote and asked the government to explain the matter. Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour also said that not a single 'No' was uttered by the opposition benches. He said that the resolution had been moved to prevent the Punjab-like situation, as the province was lacking a proper mechanism to regulate the sector.
He said that under the new arrangements, no new ministry would be created and the federal government would regulate only the import and export related matters of drugs and medicines. However, he said that under Article 144, the responsibility could be withdrawn any time.